The Infanta Cristina has not appealed against the judge’s decision to formally name her as a suspect in the Nóos case last week. Instead her defence lawyers have requested that the date for her court appearance to be brought forward from March 8th. Judge José Castro agreed and set a new date for February 8th, although he pointed out that the appearance was not voluntary as her lawyers had suggested.

The head of the law firm responsible for Cristina’s defence, Miquel Roca, said that it had been the Infanta’s idea not to appeal against the summons and to declare “the sooner the better” because she is “totally convinced of her innocence”.

Meanwhile the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, Pedro Horrach, has attacked the judge for putting the King’s daughter under suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

In a fierce response to the summons he accused the judge of mounting a “conspiratorial theory” and that his reasons for suspecting the Infanta are based on “doubts” that do not serve as a basis for an accusation as they are “mere conjecture, suspicion and speculation”.

The prosecutor described it as “incongruous” to suspect her of knowing how a company worked (referring to Aizóon, which she co-owns with her husband and is thought to have been used to channel public funds into private hands) when she “had nothing to do with the administration of the company”.

Tax inspectors

On Thursday Judge Castro agreed to the prosecutor’s request for him to interrogate the three tax inspectors who analysed the Infanta’s economic activity through the firm Aizóon and concluded that she had not committed tax fraud.

In his letter to the judge, the public prosecutor concluded that Castro had shed doubt on the conclusions of these inspectors, suggesting that the tax office had shown the Infanta preferential treatment.

Horrach also opposed the decision the last time the judge named the Infanta Cristina as a suspect, in May last year. That time her summons was annulled.

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